Cardiff (United Kingdom) (AFP) - France winger Damian Penaud will start in Bordeaux-Begles’ Champions Cup final against Northampton in Cardiff this weekend, the French club announced on Friday.

Penaud has been sidelined since the semi-final victory over Toulouse earlier this month with an ankle injury.

The 28-year-old has scored 21 tries this season for club and country and forms a lethal partnership with fellow winger Louis Bielle-Biarrey.

Head coach Yannick Bru has made six other changes to his team from last weekend’s Top 14 win over Castres. Tonga heavyweight prop Ben Tameifuna has been named on the bench.

For Northampton, England winger Ollie Sleightholme is among the substitutes having been out since March with an ankle injury.

Northampton director of rugby Phil Dowson had initially said the 25-year-old would miss the rest of the season.

“That was to stop loads of questions!” Dowson jokingly told reporters.

“And to be honest, it was really difficult from a medical point of view to put a timeline on it.

“These things sometimes happen a bit quicker than planned and that’s obviously a very positive thing.”

- Furbank ‘gamble’ -

Club captain George Furbank is at full-back, having played just 52 minutes since recovering from breaking an arm in December.

“It’s always a gamble,” Dowson told reporters.

“Whenever you bring someone back from injury, there’s always a point where they’ve got to hit somebody, make a cover tackle, or go flat out.

“There’s always a risk there.

“We’re confident he can drop back in from a skills and confidence perspective so that’s one of the reasons we have.”

Dowson has named winger James Ramm, flanker Alex Coles, lock Temo Mayanavanua and hooker Curtis Langdon in the starting XV.

The quartet all suffered injuries in last Saturday’s Premiership win over Saracens.

Teams:

Northampton: George Furbank; Tommy Freeman, Fraser Dingwall (capt), Rory Hutchinson, James Ramm; Fin Smith, Alex Mitchell; Henry Pollock, Josh Kemeny, Alex Coles; Tom Lockett, Temo Mayanavanua; Trevor Davison, Curtis Langdon, Emmanuel Iyogun

Replacements: Craig Wright, Tarek Haffar, Elliot Millar-Mills, Ed Prowse, Angus Scott-Young, Tom James, Tom Litchfield, Ollie Sleightholme

Coach: Phil Dowson (ENG)

Bordeaux-Begles: Romain Buros; Damian Penaud, Nicolas Depoortere, Yoram Moefana; Louis Bielle-Biarrey; Matthieu Jalibert, Maxime Lucu (capt), Pete Samu, Guido Petti, Mahamadou Diaby, Cyril Cazeaux, Adam Coleman; Sipili Falatea, Maxime Lamothe, Jefferson Poirot

Replacements: Connor Sa, Ugo Boniface, Ben Tameifuna, Pierre Bochaton, Bastien Vergnes-Taillefer, Marko Gazzotti, Arthur Retiere, Rohan Janse van Rensburg

Coach: Yannick Bru (FRA)

Referee: Nika Amashukeli (GEO)